CFF Advances Sustainability Vision of Local Morro Bay Community

Yesterday, the New York Times featured a story about the new Morro Bay Community Quota Fund. With the help of a loan from EDF’s California Fisheries Fund (CFF), the Quota Fund was able to acquire fishing quota and five fishing permits from The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which the Quota Fund will lease to local fishermen to support a sustainable local fishing industry. Here at CFF we are excited to be involved in California’s first community purchase of fishing quota, contributing to the groundfish fishery’s continued environmental stewardship.

Several years ago, TNC bought these fishing permits and boats from fishermen who were interested in leaving the trawling business. TNC then leased trawl permits to fishermen who agreed to use non-trawl or low-impact trawl gear to catch the same fish with less habitat impact. This effort combined with EDF’s role in helping to get catch shares implemented for the rest of the West Coast groundfish trawl fleet has aided the fishery in bouncing back. In fact, the fishery was recently certified as sustainable and recognized by the Marine Stewardship Council as “the most diverse, complex fishery ever to enter assessment against MSC standard anywhere in the world.”

Andrea Lueker, Executive Director at the Morro Bay Community Quota Fund shared her thoughts about the transaction:

“We look forward to helping local fishermen continue their sustainable fishing businesses and we especially aim to help young local fishermen get started. We appreciate everything that the California Fisheries Fund and The Nature Conservancy have done to help us launch the Quota Fund.”

The mission of the CFF has always been to support fishermen’s goals of being stewards of the resource as they transition to or continue sustainable fishing practices. Many other organizations and individuals have reached out to us for help in achieving similar goals. In response to these requests, we’ve outlined the journey of the CFF through a video series and brief paper. In sharing our story, we hope to continue a rich dialogue about sustainable fishery management and investing in fishery conservation.